Problems come at crucial point for NASA

The agency could have trouble securing funding from skeptical lawmakers.

July 29, 2005|By Tamara Lytle, Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- NASA's latest troubles with the space shuttle come at a crucial time, when Congress is considering a successor for the aging fleet as well as a major financial investment in a Mars program.

The agency's supporters said Thursday that the space program still has great backing in Congress, despite an announcement that the shuttle fleet will be grounded after foam fell off the external fuel tank after Tuesday's launch. But some lawmakers said NASA's credibility is hurt, and that could affect what Congress is willing to pay for in the future.

"You can have only so much faith in people who have all the money and time and still don't do the job," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said of the shuttle program. "That big plume of flame coming out of it, those are thousand-dollar bills being burned."

Foam coming off the external fuel tank hit Columbia in 2003 and caused damage that led to the shuttle disintegrating on return, killing seven astronauts. Rohrabacher and others said the foam problem -- after NASA spent more than two years attempting to fix it -- is a real blow to the agency's credibility.

"These are hard times in getting budgets," said Harry Lambright, political scientist at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. "When you have very ambitious goals that cost a lot of money, your ability to get the resources you need depends a great deal on your credibility."

But Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, said NASA's new boss, Michael Griffin, is well respected on Capitol Hill and has been open and transparent about the latest problem.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said President Bush still has faith in NASA and Griffin.

"Space exploration is a high priority for the United States, and we want to continue to lead the way," McClellan said.

But Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the shuttle problems have strengthened his resolve to start next year trying to kill the manned mission to Mars that Bush has laid out. A NASA authorization bill, approving the general idea, passed the House 383-15 and is headed for the Senate.

"This is an argument for going to Mars by instrument, not by people," Frank said. "When human beings are involved, it is much more difficult and expensive."

But Weldon conceded that if it takes a long time to get the rest of the shuttles flying again, House and Senate members may start pressing to retire the shuttle earlier than the current plan.

Even before this week's events, the House and Senate were sharply divided about how much longer the shuttle should fly.

House Republicans want the shuttle retired by 2010 so the money can be diverted to developing a Crew Exploration Vehicle to replace it. Senators of both parties and House Democrats disagree. They want the shuttle to keep flying until the replacement vehicle is ready to go.

Chris Paulitz, spokesman for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said it's important to keep flying the shuttle so research does not have to stop and so the United States does not face national-security risks from having no access of its own to space.

"This is something the U.S. is a world leader on and needs to remain a world leader on," Paulitz said.

But Rohrabacher said there may be a move in Congress to retire the shuttles even before 2010 because of the recent problem, especially if the fleet is grounded for a long time.

"You can't have big money to go to the moon and Mars if you're spending $4 billion a year maintaining the shuttle fleet and you only fly once," Rohrabacher said. "There will be no money to go anywhere else."

Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., said the latest problems show the need to speed up the shuttle's successor.

"This incident only underscores the need to put development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle as the top priority of NASA's new human exploration initiative," Gordon said. "It makes no sense to talk about getting our astronauts to the moon by 2020 until we can first get them to and from low Earth orbit safely and reliably."